{"id":314,"date":"2008-01-29T21:37:11","date_gmt":"2008-01-30T02:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2008\/01\/29\/my-annual-check-up-part-ii-here-i-come-dr-starnes\/"},"modified":"2018-09-02T21:31:12","modified_gmt":"2018-09-03T02:31:12","slug":"my-annual-check-up-part-ii-here-i-come-dr-starnes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2008\/01\/29\/my-annual-check-up-part-ii-here-i-come-dr-starnes\/","title":{"rendered":"Here I Come Dr. Vaughn Starnes"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the annual check-up with Dr. Rosin (my cardiologist), it was time to venture back to USC’s Medical Center to see Dr. Vaughn Starnes (my heart surgeon), for part two of my annual check-up.<\/p>\n

I have to admit…<\/p>\n

The fact that Dr. Rosin was happy with my recent echocardiogram results made the sixty-minute drive to USC rather pleasant for a change<\/em>. I can remember many, other drives to USC that were drenched in fear, anxiety and doubt due to my much-needed heart valve replacement surgery.<\/p>\n

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I checked-in with Debbie (at the front desk) and moments later Rosemary led me back to the examination rooms.<\/p>\n

“What an amazing life this is,” I thought to myself, “I can not believe it has been two years since my aortic valve replacement operation. After all that I have been though… I am sooooooooooo incredibly thankful for the blessings in my life.”<\/p>\n

Dr. Starnes and his team (which included a nurse and a physician’s assistant) entered the examination room. Moments later, positive consensus formed around the functioning of my heart.<\/p>\n

As Dr. Starnes listened to my stitched ticker with his stethoscope, he suggested, “The echo looks great and you sound excellent.”<\/p>\n

I exhaled.<\/p>\n

“No limitations, right?” Dr. Starnes queried me.<\/p>\n

I smiled.<\/p>\n

“I’m back surfing again,” I said proudly, “And, I’m back scuba diving again too. All is going well… I think I’m going to hold-off on skydiving though.”<\/p>\n

I did my best to get a smile out of Dr. Starnes. It worked.<\/p>\n

We continued on for another few minutes and then the Chairman of Cardiothoracic Surgery at USC gave me some good coaching<\/em> and the annual green-light <\/em>that most patients love to hear.<\/p>\n

“Oh yah… Remember to keep taking antibiotics before any trips to the dentist,” Dr. Starnes suggested, “Besides that… I’ll see you next year!”<\/p>\n

Another smile appeared on his face.<\/p>\n

And with that, Doctor Vaughn Starnes (and team) was off to the next patient. I was in-and-out of his office on San Pablo Street in less than 25 minutes. To learn about Dr. Starnes, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Heart valve replacement surgery is a medical miracle – challenging yes, but still a medical miracle.<\/p>\n

Keep on tickin!
\nAdam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-surgeons-clinics"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}